This Old Carnival
by Sora G. Silverwind
Summary: After working hard on Epikyur fighting against the BHB Army, Bomberman and Pommy unexpectedly run into Lilith at the amusement park. Plotless cuteness ensues.
1. remember the beginning

**This Old Carnival  
>By Sora G. Silverwind<strong>

**Summary: After working hard on Epikyur fighting against the BHB Army, Bomberman and Pommy unexpectedly run into Lilith at the amusement park. Plotless cuteness ensues.**

**Rating: PG. (NO WAIT I SWEAR I'M THE REAL SORA!)**

**Author's notes: SO HEY I've had this thing sitting around for a while, and although it's not finished, I figured I might as well toss it up here since I'm about 75% certain that I'm not going to be making major edits to the first two chapters. Story is set in chibiverse, which means that you can read it without fear of having your innocent Bombervisions broken into a million little pieces like a rainbow of nonpareils. Watch out for the Bomberman/Lilith flying around, and make sure it doesn't crap on your head. You can feed it breadcrumbs if you like, though.**

**Disclaimer: Hudson owns Bomberman, but it's not like they're doing anything cool with him, those jerkfaces. Pair up with Namco Bandai and give me Tales of Second Attack already!**

**Title comes from a lyric in Vanessa Carlton's "Carnival", because why the hell not.**

B-O-M-B

"Bomberman, Pommy's hungry! Pommy wants popcorn! And cotton candy! And ice cream! And candy bars!" Pommy jumped a 36-square hopscotch pattern all around Bomberman as the two of them exited the labyrinthine Castle of Time. They'd just destroyed the Gravity Generator deep in the basement of the castle. "And can we buy churros? Pommy loves churros, especially the strawberry ones!"

Bomberman stopped in his tracks on the castle drawbridge and crossed his arms, glaring at Pommy. "I thought you said you had enough fun for one day."

"Pommy had enough fun! But not enough food!" Pommy pouted. "Pommy's starving! We haven't eaten for hours!"

"We ate two hours ago."

"That's a lot of hours!"

Bomberman put a hand to his face and groaned. _How can Pommy live with only two brain cells: one for talking and one for eating? _He pulled out his wallet to check his cash stash...and found all of three singles. "Well, if you really need something to eat, I'll get you something. But only _one_ thing, okay? Don't make me get cash from the ATMs here, because their withdrawal fees are ridiculous."

"Oh, Bomberman! Nice to see you again!"

Bomberman nearly dropped his wallet in the castle moat at the sound of the familiar blush-inducing voice. "Oh, uh...hey," he said, secretly congratulating himself on not stuttering madly. One had to appreciate the small victories in life as well as the larger ones. "How are you? Is everything all right?"

There was the briefest of pauses before Lilith answered. "Everything's fine! I just thought that I might see what was going on here. Did you...?"

Bomberman nodded. "We just came back from disabling the generator."

"Good, that means we're one step closer to taking down Rukifellth. What about Zoniha?"

He looked away. "Gone. But someone else got to her before I could."

Lilith blinked. "That's...interesting. Do you know who?"

"She called him Bulzeeb, but..."

"But?" Lilith prompted.

Bomberman shook his head. Seeing Regulus of all people here in this stupid black hole was something he'd sooner forget, even though he knew they'd be meeting again eventually. As if there weren't enough people after his bomberhide already! "Never mind. It's nothing."

"Well...okay." She looked like she was thinking about something.

"Pommy's glad to see Lilith again!" Pommy scurried up to hug Lilith's lower leg, since he wasn't really tall enough to hug her anywhere else.

Lilith picked him up in her arms and hugged him back. "And Lilith is very glad to see Pommy!" she responded with a playful tone.

_Not jealous right now,_ Bomberman told himself as he saw Lilith cuddle Pommy before setting him on the ground. _Am not, am not, am not!_ "Well, we were just going to leave," he spoke up pointedly, "since we've destroyed the Gravity Generator and gotten Zoniha's Elemental Stone."

"You're not going to stay and explore the park?"

He simpered. "We sort of did already, what with trying to find Zoniha and all."

"How is it? Happyland is supposed to be really popular in these parts?"

"It's all right, I guess." Bomberman hadn't exactly been able to enjoy himself, what with being chased by ghosts and trying to find card keys to let him into the more restricted areas of the park. And then, of course, there were the not-so-minor issues of Zoniha (who quite honestly was one of the most frightening people Bomberman had ever met in his life, which was saying something considering his job), Regulus (who had apparently changed his name to Bulzeeb — identity crisis?), and the Gravity Generator. Ideal conditions for enjoying a visit to a theme park? Sure...if you'd gotten a little too many knocks to the head after having smoked a pile of paint chips while listening to Manowar for three hours straight.

"Just all right?" Lilith asked.

"Pommy thought the rides looked fun," said Pommy. "Well, except for that roller coaster that took us to Zoniha. That was scary, myu."

Lilith laughed. "I'll keep that in mind when I see it. Scary roller coasters are the best." She waved. "I'll see you guys later!"

"W-wait!" Bomberman called.

Lilith did.

Bomberman fidgeted a bit, suddenly second-guessing what he was about to do. _I have my priorities completely straight! Really! _"Um...if you want...I can, you know..." He took another breath and gestured vaguely. "Showyouaroundthepark."

"But Lilith already has a map," Pommy said helpfully.

Bomberman subtly kicked Pommy in the side. (_"Myu!"_)

"This thing?" Lilith held up a colorful brochure and rolled her eyes. "Completely unreadable. I've seen paint splatters that make more sense."

"Well, you know what Freud would say about...never mind." Bomberman cleared his throat. "But anyway. If you don't want me — er, us — around, that's..."

"Oh, no! I'd be glad to hang out with you guys!" Lilith smiled. "Three's a company, and I personally think I'm in pretty good company right now."

Bomberman quickly turned to keep Lilith from seeing the blush on his face. "All right, then!" he said, starting to walk off. "To the museum!"

"But Bomberman," Pommy pointed out, "that's the way to the haunted house, myu."

Bomberman blinked. Sure enough, the blue-tongued ghost statue heralding the way to the spook shack was front and center in his vision. Talk about a wrong turn at Kanatia Star.

"I don't mind," Lilith said. "We can go visit the haunted house. I'm not picky."

"Trust me, you _don't_ want to step inside that place," Bomberman muttered.

"Why? What's wrong with it?"

_Let's see. Flaming doors? Check. Tiles crumbling into a shadowy abyss? Check. Spikes in the wooden floorboards? Monster dolls roaming the rooms? Check and check. Oh, and ghosts. _It was like that place was made solely to kill him. Which he was inclined to believe after meeting Zoniha. "Just...seriously, it's not a good idea."

Lilith shrugged. "I'll take your word for it."

"We should be going to get something to eat, anyway!" Pommy piped up. "Bomberman said he'd get something for Pommy to eat!"

"Oh, I did, didn't I?" Bomberman groaned before letting out a long sigh. "Well, that's as good a place to start as any. You want anything to eat, Lilith? I'm a little broke, unfortunately, but if you want cotton candy or something..."

Lilith waved him off cheerfully. "I'll pay for everything."

Bomberman stared. "What? _No!_ It's fine...you don't really have to...!"

"It's not a problem! I just...um...stopped by the bank before I came here. I have money to throw around." She patted a side pocket.

Bomberman was still reluctant. What kind of guy was he, that he couldn't even pay for a meal for his girlfriend...er...girl friend? But he supposed that he didn't have much of a choice at the moment. Those ATM fees were going to eat him alive if the BHB Army didn't. Heck, maybe those ATMs were BHB brand. That would explain a lot. "Well...okay," he said. "But I'll pay you back as soon as possible."

"Don't be silly! Your company is enough repayment."

Bomberman almost fainted into the moat.


	2. I was just thinking of you

The three of them headed over to Happy Eats, the main restaurant of Happyland. Bomberman limited himself to a medium order of fries and a small soda, but Pommy was ready to order multiples of everything on the menu when Lilith gently reminded Pommy that, no, she wasn't quite _that_ rich. Undeterred, Pommy had settled for three megaburgers, a large soda, large fries, and three cookies.

_Oh, sure, if _**_I_**_ tell him I've got no money, he just whines at me, but if _**_Lilith_**_ tells him that, he's totally fine with it,_ Bomberman grumbled to himself as he watched Pommy work through his food. He glanced over at Lilith, who was daintily eating from a cup of chocolate ice cream with a tiny plastic spoon. _How does she make something as mundane as eating look so damn cute?_

He'd been taken with the girl ever since he first met her on Alcatraz. Her cute, sunny disposition had been exactly what Bomberman needed once he realized that he was going to have to fight his way home from vacation. It wasn't like he'd been intending to just resign himself to a black hole existence or anything like that, but Lilith's advice paired with her optimism and partnership made the journey easier and more pleasant than it would've been otherwise. Which is probably how Bomberman found himself one Elemental Stone closer to freedom...and yet disturbingly reluctant to finish this impromptu mission of his.

Because then what would become of him and Lilith?

Not that there was really much "him and Lilith" to speak of, when he thought about it. Prior to this, they'd only met maybe five or six times. But it was enough, for him.

_What is it that you fight for?_ Molok's words echoed in his mind. _Why do you not falter in the face of such opposition?_

The answer to that question was currently sitting across from Bomberman, asking him: "Howhave things been going for you, besides having to deal with the BHB Army?"

Bomberman shrugged. "As well as things can go, given the circumstances."

Lilith smiled gently. "I'm glad to hear that." She sighed. "It's a dire situation, to say the least. I'm really sorry I'm not around more to help you guys out."

"What?" He blinked at her. "Don't be ridiculous! You're plenty helpful! You give us advice, and you warned us about Zhael that one time, and you saved us from Molok, and..."

"Lady Luck had a hand in those encounters, I'm sure. I could've saved you guys a lot of trouble if I'd been there with you in the first place."

Bomberman munched on a fry before continuing. "Well...you have your own thing to do, right? I'm sure it's just as important as what I'm doing, or even more so." Pause. "What _do_ you do, exactly? I never got a chance to ask that before."

"Oh, I keep an eye on BHB activities as best as I can. Sometimes I do my own spying, sometimes I get the information from others." She kept her eyes on her ice cream as she spoke.

"No wonder, then! You have to be all over the place to do that sort of work, don't you? I don't blame you for not being able to hang around with us."

"I guess it makes sense when you put it that way."

_Why does she still look so sad? _Bomberman wondered. "Have you found out anything new about the BHB Army that I should know about?"

She poked at the remainder of her dessert. "Nothing more than the usual. Rukifellth is still miffed that you've been stealing the Elemental Stones that he stole first and taking out his elite fighting force. He's sent out more of his goons to find you, and the bounty on your head is over nine thousand galactic gold at this point."

"Really? I thought I passed nine thousand when I defeated Ashtarth."

"Nine hundred thousand, then." Lilith reached over and snatched one of Bomberman's fries. "Either way, you need to be really careful. He'll stop at nothing to get those stones — not even a seemingly fun place like this is safe from his reach." An amusedly sad look. "But...you know that already, don't you."

"Y-yeah." He tried to give a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, though. I'm used to dealing with bad guys. It's in the job description."

She tilted her head. "Job description?"

"I'm part of a special worldwide defense force back home. So I've had to deal with criminals ranging from bank robbers to wannabe galactic dictators."

Lilith's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked, sounding interested.

Bomberman tried to resist the urge to brag — and failed miserably. "Yep! There was even a group of mercenaries that tried to literally take a chunk out of Bomber Star with a mystical artifact called the Omni Cube. They'd already destroyed four planets before coming to ours, and they had pieces of those planets actually anchored to their spaceship, the Black Fortress."

"No way! Why would they do that?"

"Those anchors somehow powered the shields that protected the Black Fortress from attack." Bomberman crossed his arms and grinned. "But I destroyed the anchors, infiltrated the spaceship, and defeated their ringleader, Altair."

"Oh, man, I've heard of him! He's supposed to be really dangerous. You actually defeated him by yourself?"

"Yep!" It was technically true. He'd been ready to arrest the guy when Regulus swooped in to save him. And _then_ that two-faced jerk Sirius had dropped in and annihilated Altair with the Omni Cube.

"Wow." Lilith giggled. "I'm glad we're on the same side, then!"

_Oh, boy, you have _**_no_**_ idea. _"Same here." Bomberman flashed a victory sign. "So no worries! Once I get the last Elemental Stone, I'll head to the Warship Noah and make that Rukifellth sorry he ever interrupted my flight home! Well, that, and enslaving all these planets in this black hole."

The cheer dropped from Lilith's face so fast it practically broke the sound barrier. Bomberman's bravado plummeted twice as fast. _Crap! What did I say? What did I say? Was that a bad joke to make? Does she think I'm a self-centered jerk now because I was doing all that bragging? What should I — _

"M-myu..." Pommy reached over and tugged on Bomberman's arm, looking pained. "Pommy doesn't feel so good."


	3. never thought it'd feel so right

After Pommy got a chance to offer up the contents of his stomach to the Almighty Public Porcelain God, the trio set off to explore Happyland. It wasn't long before something caught Pommy's attention.

"Look, they've got games!" Pommy ran over to a booth featuring a ring toss game. "Can Pommy try this one?"

Bomberman eyed a nearby sign. "It looks like you need tokens for this."

"Not to worry." Lilith dug around in her pocket, which jingled a little with the movement. "I loaded up a bit at the entrance, since they had a token machine there." She handed one to Pommy, and he scurried over to the game operator to exchange the token for a set of five rings.

Bomberman watched in amusement as Pommy flung the rings like supersonic frisbees, almost nailing the operator in the face with one of them. "You gotta be more careful than that, marshmallow," he said. "The point is to get the ring onto the stick thing, not to knock it over."

Pommy pouted at Bomberman. "But the stick is so far away!"

For Pommy, who was probably a third of Bomberman's height and had even less of an armspan than he did, it probably was. "I'll show you how it's done. Lilith? Mind lending me a token?"

Four of Bomberman's tosses fell short. The fifth one just barely made it on target. "Man, this is harder than it looks..." he said, frowning thoughtfully.

"Can Pommy try again?" Pommy asked.

He and Bomberman went through two more unsuccessful rounds each before Lilith stepped in to try. "At this rate, we're going to be here all day, and I won't have a chance to check out the rides," she explained with a gentle smirk.

_Swish-swish-swish-swish-swish!_

In five quick snaps of her wrist, she landed all of the rings on the stick.

"Myu, that was great!" Pommy cheered, hopping up and down. "Lilith's really good at this game!"

Lilith shrugged it off. "Thanks. But you learn hand-eye coordination real fast when you're tossing pointy objects around." She glanced up at the shelf of prizes. "Is there anything here the two of you might want?"

Bomberman tilted his head. "But...you're the one who won the game."

She smiled at him. "I don't need anything. I just felt a bit sorry for you guys."

That earned a slight blush from Bomberman. "I would've gotten it eventually..." he mumbled, scratching the back of his head and glancing away.

She giggled. "I'm just kidding. To be honest, I kinda just wanted to show off a little." She winked and put a finger to her lips, as though she'd just admitted some juicy secret. "Now pick out a prize."

Wait...was Lilith asking _him_ specifically to pick out something? Even though she'd said "the two of them" — meaning him and Pommy — not long before that?

Bomberman cleared his throat for no good reason and took a better look at the prize offerings. There sure were a lot of stuffed animals. He wasn't really a stuffed animal person, but...well, that yellow tiger looked kind of cute, and if Lilith really wanted him to get something...

"Pommy wants the bunny!"

_Siiiiigh._

"Bunny it is, then!" Lilith skipped off to fetch the floppy pink bunny plush. She was about to give it to Pommy when she paused. "Huh, this thing is larger than you are, you know. You're not gonna be able to walk with it."

"I'll hold it," Bomberman said, resigned. As he took it from Lilith, though, he had to admit that it was pretty nice for a stuffed animal won at an amusement park. He gave the bunny a quick squeeze, and reminded himself that he was _not_ jealous of Pommy for getting such a girly prize from Lilith. Totally not jealous at all.

Their next stop was a few booths over at a high striker game. Bomberman stared at the game, then at Pommy, then back at the game. "You seriously want to do this?" he asked in disbelief. He doubted the critter could even pick up the mallet, never mind swing it hard enough to ring the bell at the top of the tower.

"Well, Pommy really wants that inflatable hammer. It looks pretty cool!"

Bomberman checked out the prize in question. Geez, that thing was probably even taller than him! "Um...look, I don't mean to be a party pooper, but we only have so much room in our plane," he pointed out. "We can't keep getting big prizes like that." He crossed his arms and tapped his foot. "Or are you just trying to compensate for something?"

"What would Pommy be trying to compensate for, myu?" Pommy asked, blinking confusedly.

Bomberman sighed. "Well, if you really want it, I can try to get it for you." Likely an effort doomed to failure. Even without considering that the game might be rigged against them, Bomberman wasn't exactly a strongman. Who needed physical strength when you could just blow stuff up? He missed the carnival games from back on Bomber Star; _something_ always got blown up, even if it was the booth itself. There were insurance policies tailor-made for that sort of situation.

Lilith knelt down to pat Pommy on the head. "I think it would be a good idea if we looked around first to see what the other games have," she suggested. "You might see something else that you want more at a different place."

"Oh. Pommy supposes that makes sense, myu." The critter grinned. "Okay! Let's go check out the rest of the games!"

"_Thank you_," Bomberman whispered to Lilith once Pommy bounded out of earshot.

"Don't thank me yet," she said as they set off at a more leisurely pace. "Some of these games have pretty impressive prizes. You'd better hope he doesn't want an electric bass guitar or something."

"If he doesn't want it, I do," Bomberman responded, immediately scanning any game booths he could see for said item. He'd been wanting to learn that instrument for a while now, and if he could get it for close to free, then so much the better. Though it wasn't like he'd be able to try it out anytime soon. They still had to defeat the BHB Army, after all.

She smirked again. "Want me to win it for you?"

_Yes. _"Nah. It's better if I win it myself. More satisfying that way."

"I can understand that." Lilith gave a thumbs-up. "But anytime you want me to swoop in and save you again, just say the word and I'm there!"

Bomberman laughed. "That was _one_ time."

"Three times, technically, if you want to also count the more serious situations with Zhael and Molok."

"And you're offering to _keep_ on saving my behind? I thought you'd be sick of it by this point."

A cute shrug. "We're in this together, so it's no big deal." She waved a hand. "Besides, winning you a couple of carnival prizes is the least I can do after all you've been through."

"Don't worry too much about it, seriously," Bomberman insisted. Why did it sound a lot like Lilith felt guilty about everything that was going on? It wasn't like it was her fault that some wacko pirate decided to up and play treasure hunter with a ginormous space vacuum. Was it? Before he could think too hard about it, he continued: "Hey, why don't _I_ try to win _you_ something?"

"Sure, if you want."

For some reason, Bomberman hadn't expected it to go over that smoothly. "Okay. Uh. Is there anything you'd like?"

Lilith smiled and moved a bit closer to him. "Nothing in particular. But I'm sure you'll get me something nice."

The blush was returning with a vengeance to Bomberman's face. He turned away, pretending to look around some more, and thought to himself that he could get used to this.

He probably already had.


End file.
